I began my career with two decades in IT, managing major projects in Dublin, London, Heathrow and Dallas/Fort Worth. Photography had always been part of my life, and in 2007 I moved from London to Cork and embraced it professionally, blending my technical background with emerging digital tools.
Over the next fifteen years back in Dublin, I built a studio practice, photographing weddings, portraits, commercial work and later focusing on model shoots and fine-art composites. My work earned multiple national awards, including Irish Professional Portrait Photographer of the Year 2017, Creative Photographer of the Year 2019, and Fine Art Photographer of the Year 2022. I also served as President of the Irish Professional Photographers Association from 2014–2016.
I’ve since stepped back from commercial commissions and now focus on the work that excites me most — creating atmospheric fine-art photography and hybrid digital artwork that blends imagination, craft and technical innovation.
Alongside this, I write crime fiction under the name Lenny Brando, with a detective trilogy releasing soon.
A composite of three AI images. One for the ruins, another for the sky and the third for the warrior. I generated the sky and ruins locally, using an Nvidia RTX 5090, ComfyUI, CyberrealisticXL_v60, Lightroom, CS6, Luminar NEO, Nik FIlters and Gigapixel. The warrior image I generated with Midjourney. The prompts are largely irrelevant as elements of the prompt have been superseded by the composite process.
The following gallery is photographic with no AI elements. Photoshop brushes are not AI! I create mist/fog effects by photographing skies and creating a brush in CS6 and using that brush in a transparent layer to create the effect I want. Some of the smoke was generated by a dry ice machine, and the rain I created with a garden hose. Some of the images are composites, most are studio portraits.
I didn’t start my career in photography — I spent more than twenty years in IT, working in Dublin, the City of London, and later in the aviation sector at Heathrow Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth. I began as a developer and eventually managed large, multi-million-pound projects. Photography was always part of my life, though — something I practised from a young age, developing black-and-white film in a darkroom and creating prints from slides.
In 2007 I moved from London to Cork and shifted direction completely, taking up photography professionally. It was the perfect moment to blend my technical background with the rapid evolution of digital imaging. I began with weddings, portraits and commercial assignments, gradually refining my focus. Weddings gave way to studio work; family portraits gave way to fashion and creative model shoots; and eventually I concentrated on a mix of fine-art composites and commercial commissions.
My studio work became known for its technical polish and creative post-production, and I was fortunate to receive recognition along the way. My professional awards include:
Irish Professional Portrait Photographer of the Year (2017)
Creative Photographer of the Year (2019)
Fine Art Photographer of the Year (2022)
Silver Crest in Creative Photography (2021)
Silver Crest in Fine Art (2017)
Silver Crest in Fine Art (2021)
I also served as President of the Irish Professional Photographers Association from 2014–2016.
In recent years I have stepped back from commercial assignments. The studio was good for the soul but not always for the wallet, and I wanted to return to creating for the joy of it — blending photography with emerging digital tools, and now with the possibilities offered by AI.
Today my work focuses on atmospheric fine-art imagery and hybrid digital art, drawing on decades of craft, technical knowledge and storytelling instincts.
I am also a crime fiction writer under the name Lenny Brando, with a police-procedural trilogy following DCI Wilbur Hayes due for release soon.